At noon PST, the doors to the main floor of E3 2012 opened with the stampede of geeks eager to get to their favorite game or company first, before lines made seeing anything an hour long chore. I myself nearly ran towards the Xbox 360 section, straight towards the Halo 4 demo. I still ended up halfway back in the line and waited nearly an hour. But … it was worth it.

It was a big day for Nintendo fans today at E3, as Nintendo announced a number of games coming to their Wii U console, and they let slip a little detail about Wii U’s release- this holiday season.

The Nintendo conference began with an intro featuring Mr. Miyamoto in his dressing room, with some familiar little creatures running around in the racks- PIKMIN! Mr. Miyamoto took to the stage and we got a close look at the Pikmin, and their new game, Pikmin 3 which will be coming to the Wii U. It seems like it will be a far more satisfying experience than has been offered for Pikmin thus far, with better camera viewing angles and a constant mini-map display on the Wii U Controller display.

Microsoft’s biggest franchise is returning this fall with Halo 4. The first of a new trilogy, Halo 4 (and hopefully 5 and 6) will explore the Halo Universe’s backstory; specifically, the Forerunners. In a lengthy gameplay demo shown during Microsoft’s E3 press conference yesterday, we join the Chief in exploring a new world.

The new game takes place four years after the war with the covenant. The UNSC is slowly beginning it’s re-expansion across the stars. We follow the UNSC Infinity, a warship commissioned for the war against the Covenant and now repurposed for peaceful survey duties. On route unfortunately, the Infinity is hijacked by an unknown entity and ends up on an alien planet where the Master Chief just happens to be … convenient, right? As the ship comes in for a crash landing, we flash over to the Chief.